Glacier Trilogy — Part 3: Simulating glacial water systems, 2022

Schubert’s Glacier Trilogy — Part 3: Simulating glacial water systems looks to glaciers as the origin points of river systems, representing the future availability of water. Part 3 presents a real-time simulation of melting glacial ice that runs over an elevation map of the Western Alps. A carbon dioxide sensor in the exhibition space determines specific parameters, connecting the exhalation of visitors directly to the complex patterns emerging in the simulated fluidic system. The artwork considers both the impact of humans on the environment and how we might use technology to improve our relationship with nature, which, the artist notes, is necessary for confronting the climate crisis.

Dr. Theresa Schubert is a Berlin-based artist, researcher, and curator exploring unconventional visions of nature, technology, and the self. Schubert holds a PhD in Media Art from Bauhaus-University Weimar. Her practice combines audiovisual and hybrid media in conceptual and immersive installations or performances. Organic matter and living organisms, algorithms, and artificial intelligence are not just materials in the artwork–the artist considers them as meaningful co-creators. She works with immersive video environments and 3D Laser Scanning to challenge modes of perception and question the human-machine relationship in hyper-technological societies, where the nature-culture divide seems to dissolve in the digital realm.

Baroque Bodies (Sway), 2024

Baroque Bodies (Sway) is an interactive installation exploring the impact of the environment on gene expression. Nurturing embodied sensations of micro and macro scales, the work features a projected 3D model of a nucleosome, a cluster of DNA and proteins that holds genetic information. Landscapes reflected on surfaces were AI-generated using text excerpts from epigenetics research. Visitors’ movements influence views of the nucleosome. Multiple visitors’ movements share equal yet unpredictable “sway” over the view, just as environmental effects on gene expression compound in unpredictable ways. Movement also triggers sounds created with sonified data from simulations of chromatin (the material substance of the genetic chromosome).

→ Behind the Science

Baroque Bodies (Sway) engages emerging epigenetic research. The name derives from Greek: “epi” means “on” or “above” and “epigenetic” describes factors beyond the genetic code. It focuses on inheritable changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression, rather than modification of the genetic sequence. If one’s genetic sequence were a musical score, its epigenetic expression could alter the way a song is played, without changing the song’s underlying notes. Environmental exposures, diet, lifestyle, stress, and social factors can have an impact on our health and disease risk through epigenetic changes that regulate whether genes are turned on or off.

“Genetic expression does not operate in a vacuum, and can’t be reduced to genes, but is affected by external stimuli and environmental influences. I wanted to use interactivity to create an embodied experience of this uncertainty and complexity while also eliciting agency through exploration, play, and collaboration.” —Laura Splan

Laura Splan is a New York City-based artist exploring intersections of culture, science and technology. Often working collaboratively and between disciplines, Splan’s practice reframes artifacts of the posthuman landscape. By playfully illuminating the sociopolitical dynamics of sensory experiences, Splan’s work cultivates intuitive and embodied comprehension of the interconnectedness of cultural and biological systems. Her research interrogates the “GUI/gooey” or liminal spaces that mediate our relationship to nature and to our bodies. Splan has exhibited her work internationally and is held in collections including the Thoma Art Foundation. Commissions include projects for the CDC Foundation, Vanderbilt Planetarium, and the Bruges Triennial.

→ Conversation: Laura Splan

Ephemeral, 2024

Ephemeral imagines a future where venture capitalists embrace “emotion technology,” speculating far beyond current emotion-sensing devices limited to analyzing facial expressions and biometrics. The project prototypes a transdermal implant which detects chemical levels in a user’s bloodstream and releases neuropeptides to trigger the artificial sensation of a targeted emotion—including love, excitement, or the feeling of a brand. The Ephemeral installation includes a video of a fictive conference in which a future company is promoting the implant. Intended as a provocation, the project explores the complex physiology of emotions and reminds of the uncertain future humans face with advancing biotechnologies.

→ Behind the Science

Ephemeral draws from research into neuropeptides—biochemical messengers that pass signals between neurons—and their complex effects on emotions. Consensus remains unclear as to the precise combinations of neuropeptides that produce specific emotions, given the complexity of cultural, environmental, and genetic factors influencing emotional responses. Research is currently underway to develop implant devices with the ability to sense chemical levels in the blood, such as neuropeptides, and administer tailored doses of medications directly into the bloodstream. During her residency with the Beall Center, Tapio worked with microfluidics researchers to imagine the ever-more-realistic future of such technologies.

“This work interrogates the belief that we can precisely control our living bodies through technology. We have a very limited ability to grasp very complex information, such as the layered mechanisms of emotion.” —Hege Tapio

Hege Tapio is a Norwegian artist based in Stavanger, the country’s oil capital. Tapio is currently pursuing artistic research with FeLT (Futures of Living Technologies) and is an interdisciplinary PhD fellow at the Innovation for Sustainability Program at OsloMet. Her practice examines the body as a landscape for “extreme self-mining” in bio-art installations, videos, and performances. She is the founder and director of i/o/lab – Center for Future Art, where she produced and curated a biennial from 2006–16.

→ Conversation: Hege Tapio

Ostracod Rising, 2024

Ostracod Rising explores the intertwined relationships between Earth’s rotation and atmosphere, the moon’s proximity, shifting tectonic plates, the rise and fall of sea levels, and the ebb and flow of life as envisioned over a 4.6 billion year timeline. The project touches on previous extinctions and anticipated future extinctions, de-centering the traditional anthropocentric account of Earth’s history in favor of the populations of small creatures who have thrived on Earth for hundreds of millions of years. The ostracod is among the planet’s most numerous species, destined to emerge from the seas and take to land and sky in this speculative and hopeful future.

→ Behind the Science

We tend to make sharp distinctions between living and nonliving systems (biology, geology, physics), but they are deeply intertwined. Four billion years of geophysical forces—from the spin of the earth to tidal patterns to volcanic explosions—have profoundly influenced Earth’s life forms. Small creatures have had an overwhelming impact on this dynamic. Cyanobacteria created the oxygenated atmosphere that allowed our evolution. Innumerous bacteria inhabit our skin and our guts, support our food production, and consume our waste products. Ostracod Rising pays homage to this world of tiny beings and posits a bright future in which they reign supreme.

”The work is a story that I’ve chosen to tell about how the Earth’s systems have operated in the past, where they are now, and how they might be in the future. The emergence of new patterns and behaviors becomes obvious in this book, as do feedback loops, seen in the call and response dynamics between symbiotic species.“ —Gail Wight

Gail Wight is a visual artist constructing biological allegories through book arts, video, and experimental media. She holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she was a Javits Fellow, and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art. Wight’s art has been exhibited internationally and is held in numerous publicand private collections. She is Professor Emerita in Stanford University’s Department of Art & Art History, where she continues to teach book arts and hybrid printmaking. Hexapodarium (2017), a publication about her work, includes essays and a conversation between Wight and writer Lawrence Weschler.

→ Conversation: Gail Wight

Alphabet of Life, 2024

Alphabet of Life is an immersive art installation that explores the molecular essence of life itself: the twenty primary amino acids. These molecules are used to construct the proteins that sustain all living organisms. They are the fundamental “building blocks” of life. In the installation, the intricate beauty of each amino acid is revealed through a meticulous process. Each amino acid’s molecular structure is sourced from the Protein Data Bank, transformed into 3D printable file formats, and refined to capture its essence. These structures are then laser-etched into glass orbs, creating a visual and tactile representation of the molecules that drive life’s complexity.

Pinar Yoldas describes herself as an “infradisciplinary” designer, artist, and researcher. Her practice begins from biological sciences — often from “speculative biology” — and is realized through digital technologies, architectural installations, kinetic sculpture, sound, video and drawing. The thematic areas of her interest include posthumanism, eco-nihilism, anthropocene and feminist technoscience. Originally from Istanbul, Turkey, Yoldas moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to pursue an MFA at UCLA and later a PhD at Duke University. She is an Associate Professor in the Visual Arts Department at University of California, San Diego.